The Lake House Vortex
by PopcornGoddess
Summary: Sheldon and Amy go on a week long vacation with his family. Set some time within the summer of 2016. Cannon compliant up to season 9 episode 11 (so I guess spoilers if you're not spoiled or haven't watched up to that episode). Rated for possible activities in future chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: This is my first story to be published on this site, so I'm a little nervous about it. The idea for the first scene came to me shortly after getting spoiled for season 9 episode 11 and I felt like the scene was too amusing not to write down. Because I didn't want to step into the territory of a Shamy in Texas story I was unsure if I'd ever let it see the light of day. But after some thought I figured, why the hell not, especially after I decided that the setting wouldn't be Sheldon's childhood home. I would like to build onto this in the future, but I'm not sure how long it would take me and I would like to find a beta to help me prevent plot holes, awkward wording, and drifts in character if anyone in interested. (Prompts for future scenes are also welcome.)

XXXXXXXXXX

Amy settled a short distance away from the end of the register conveyor belt and smiled. Sheldon and Missy were busy arguing about which flavor of ice cream to buy, and Mary was unloading her shopping cart and rolling her eyes.

"Shelly for the last time, we are not getting pistachio almond."

"But it's green, and has a nice mild flavor that everyone will enjoy."

"Yeah, but I'm not giving up my dutch chocolate," Missy huffed as she brandished the carton of chocolate ice cream above her head.

"No, that chocolate is too rich, we'll get sick of it half way through finishing it." Sheldon's voice had begun to get whinier and twangier and his cheeks were getting red with exasperation.

Amy took a step forward and cleared her throat. She really hated to interrupt them and spoil the show, but she couldn't help but throw in her own two cents.

"Proposal, we get both and forget about vanilla, I highly doubt that we'll finish both cartons by the end of our stay anyway."

Missy and Sheldon both paused at the same time and turned to look at Amy with identical expressions of annoyance.

"Little lady, I hope you haven't forgotten that mother plans to fix peach cobbler tonight, and everybody knows that you can't serve peach cobbler in Texas without Blue Bell vanilla ice cream."

Missy nodded in agreement. "That listeria outbreak last year caused a state wide dearth of all cobblers, not just peach."

All three of them jumped when, suddenly, Mary yanked the ice cream cartons from her children's hands and plopped them both down beside the vanilla on the conveyor belt.

"That's enough of y'alls squabbling. If I hear anymore of it there _will be no_ cobbler tonight."

For a few moments silence prevailed over the register line as Mary went back to unloading her cart. Behind her Sheldon and Missy were silently sticking their tongues out at each other and exchanging faces as Amy tried not to laugh out loud.

"Dang kids throwing junk into other peoples buggies."

Mary was glowering at a box of condoms she'd just fished out of the bottom of her cart. Sheldon snapped back to reality and glance furtively at Amy then back to his mother. Beside them Missy began to laugh and took the box out of Mary's hand and shoved it into the magazine rack above the conveyor.

"Just leave it there and let someone else worry about it mama," she chuckled as she fallowed Mary further up the line.

Sheldon wriggled in his spot for a moment, then turned his back to Amy to start shuffling forward. As soon as he was turned around he shot a hand behind his back, snapped his fingers and pointed at the rack. Amy stood on her toes to try and look around him. Mary was busy digging in her purse in front of the checkout clerk and Missy was browsing the candy. While they were still distracted Amy snatched the box of condoms out of the rack and hid it behind her back.

"I've got to use the ladies room, I'll meet you guys at the car," Amy said. Missy nodded and gave her a thumbs up and Mary didn't seem to notice.

Ten minutes later Amy ran into Sheldon as she left the store.

"Was the mission successful?" he asked as they started towards Missy's car.

She showed him the contents of her purse and replied, "affirmative."

"Good...Next trip we go on together I'm in charge of packing _both_ of our...toiletries. I don't want a situation like this to rise again."

"Pun intended?"

Sheldon sputtered.

Amy smirked and grabbed his hand in an effort to keep him moving. "I'm having a hard time figuring out why you think that this particular idem is counted as one of _my_ toiletries."

"It was decided during this years annual relationship summit that you would be in charge of the purchasing and storing of...paraphernalia concerning certain activities. You might want to check your pdf of our agreement as a reminder. Logically I assumed that you would have made space for them in your luggage."

"Well I'm sorry, they were on my list of things to pack, but they must have gotten misplaced. They're probably still in my night stand."

XXX

It was a short drive from the grocery store to the lake house that they would be staying at for the next week. As they drove up George Junior and his girlfriend, Tanya, could be seen sitting at a patio set on the front porch, smoking. George had the same height and coloring of his mother and siblings, and wore a mechanics jumpsuit with his name stitched on the breast pocket. Tanya was clearly older than her boyfriend, by about ten years, and was in bad need of another bleach job to her roots, which revealed her natural hair color to be black with graying streaks. Everything about her appearance screamed bar fly.

"Bout time y'all showed up," George said as he stubbed his cigarette out in the potted plant by the door. "Hurry up and open this bastard, I gotta piss like a racehorse."

Missy frowned and shoved the grocery bags she was carrying into his lap so she could unlock the door. "John or Meemaw didn't let you in?"

"Nobody's home sugar," Tanya rasped. "We've been sitting here for an hour."

Missy was just about to comment when a small child's giggle sounded from up the street. A burly man with sandy hair and a little old woman wearing a flowery blouse and white caprees were approaching up the sidewalk. Between them a toddler jumped and skipped about, using the adults hands as leverage to kick off and swing betwixt them every few feet. The child's face was dirty, and his blonde hair thoroughly disheveled. Missy watched them approach with her arms crossed and her foot tapping.

"John, Nathan's filthy."

John shrugged. "Blame that on the playground we found," he replied before kissing his wife's cheek.

Inside Sheldon and Amy where putting away the groceries, or at least she was anyway. While they where looking through the cabinets for places to put all the stuff Sheldon had discovered that the arrangement of all the cookware provided by the resort wasn't ideal. He was transferring a tray of spatulas and cooking spoons from a far drawer by the door to the one beside the stove when Nathan came barreling past, screaming with Mary hot on his tail.

"Gotcha," Mary crowed as she picked him up after he had crashed into Amy's legs. "It's bath time young man."

"No Meemee, no," Nathan whined as they disappeared down the hall.

Amy laughed and went back to putting away the groceries. By the stove, Sheldon loosened the white knuckle grip on his tray of spatulas and shook his head.

XXX

After dinner George and Tanya left for his house in a small town nearby and John and Missy cuddled up on the living room couch with a couple glasses of wine. In the kitchen Mary and Amy were chatting enthusiastically as they washed the dishes. Sheldon had, meanwhile, taken to the bathroom so that he could disinfect it. He had just finished and was leaving to switch out his cleaning supplies for his toiletry bag and pajamas when he ran into Meemaw in the hallway.

"There you are Moon-Pie. I was just looking for you."

"Of course you were. You wouldn't want to let me miss saying goodnight to the best Meemaw in the whole wide world," Sheldon said as he gave her an awkward hug.

"That's nice baby," she said as she received the hug, "but that's not why I wanted to talk to you. I moved yours and Amy's suitcases to the room across the hall."

Sheldon's brows furrowed in confusion. "Why?"

"Well I just thought that you two would much rather have that room, seeing as it's got two twin size beds and not those rickety old bunks."

"Aren't you afraid of sleeping in that bunk Meemaw? The top bed could collapse and kill you."

Meemaw chuckled. "Moon-Pie I'm nearly eighty years old, I've had a good run. Now back to whatever you were doing, Nathan's waiting for his bed time story."

Sheldon frowned as he looked into the bedroom with the two twin beds. Despite her looks Meemaw wasn't as frail as one would think, and what she had done to the furniture proved that. Before, there had been a night stand with a table lamp separating the beds. Now it was sitting against the opposite wall and the beds had been pushed together and made up with new bedding, with the original linens wadded up in a corner of the room. Sheldon looked over his shoulder in time to see Meemaw give him a wink as she shut the door to the other bedroom.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: The fossil that I'm digging up here kind of frightened me a little, but I'm going with it goddammit.

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Sheldon had just finished putting on his pajamas when Amy walked into the room. The look of confusion she had on her face morphed into a smirk when she saw the new furniture arrangement.

"I just spoke to Meemaw," she said airily. "At first I thought that her excitement during our conversation could be due to the crafting classes we're planning to drop into at the country club tomorrow. But then, she made a couple of innuendo laden comments when I asked her why my suitcase wasn't in the closet anymore."

Sheldon sighed and nodded. "Well, the old gall is bursting full of whimsy, and now, I suspect, Penny's incessant gossip. Remind me to remove Meemaw and Missy from her contacts list when we get home."

"Don't forget about your mother."

Amy patted him on the cheek on her way to the closet to retrieve her toothbrush and nightgown.

"Penny knows better than to mention anything to her." Sheldon frowned when Amy didn't reply. "Does she?"

Amy shrugged on her way out the door. "All the evidence so far points her not knowing about my birthday present, but I'm not willing to assume that she doesn't if Meemaw knows."

XXX

When Amy got back from the bathroom Sheldon was sitting up in the bed with an irritated look on his face.

"Maybe Penny didn't say anything about your birthday, and Meemaw is just teasing us."

Amy chuckled as she climbed into bed and fished one of his hands out of his crossed arms position and intertwined their fingers.

"Of course she is."

Sheldon nodded in agreement. "If my family had known about last December, I'm pretty sure that Mother would be hounding me about a particular issue, and they would not be making comments about bedroom activities that they only suspect are happening."

"What issue would that be?"

Sheldon wriggled nervously and his right eye twitched. "Telling you now could ruin certain things."

Amy let her hand slip out of his and tried in vain to keep her expression as neutral as possible.

"What on earth could it possibly ruin?" Sheldon didn't answer, so she pressed on, her voice wavering as she did so. "After last summer, I thought that it would be clear to you that keeping secrets from me and bottling up your emotions does us more harm than good. I'm happy with where we are now and I thought that you were too. If what you're not telling me has the potential of affecting that then I want you to tell me, whether you think that it'll ruin something or not."

"But social convention dictates..."

"Social convention, shmocial convention!"

Sheldon started a little at the volume of her voice. For a few moments they sat there in silence, Amy trying to calm down, and Sheldon wracking his big bulbous brain for a way to get everything back on track. With a resigned sigh he got out of bed and went to the closet to start digging in his suitcase.

"If you're going to make me do this now everyone else might as well witness it," he said. "Go gather them into the living room please."

XXX

Missy and John were on the couch making out when Amy led Mary and Meemaw into the room. They didn't seem to notice that they weren't alone anymore till Mary nudged them to move over so she could sit down. John had the decency to look sheepish, but Missy glared at the three intruders as she readjusted her bra.

"What's all the fuss about sugar?" Meemaw asked when she was done snickering.

Amy threw her arms out with and exasperated huff and said, "beats me."

A throat cleared at the entrance to the hallway and everyone turned to see Sheldon standing stiff and straight, a small, dark object clutched in one of his fists. With a determined stride he moved further into the room and positioned himself so that he was standing directly cross from the couch where everyone was gathered. After a few moments of everybody staring at him he wriggled in his spot before he moved again. Taking hold of Amy by the wrist, he pulled her over so that she stood stiffly beside him.

"To finish our earlier discussion Amy," Sheldon said with his eyes fixated on the ceiling fan above the couch. "Social convention dictates that a certain question is to be asked in a surprising manner, preferably during a romantic outing or in the company of friends or family."

"What?" Amy asked as she stared up at his poker face with bewilderment.

On the couch Missy let out a squeal and slapped her husband's shoulder, and Mary and Meemaw were clutching each others hands and leaning forward with anticipation.

Sheldon plowed on, seemingly unfazed. "My reasoning for believing that my family is teasing us and that they only suspect that we've engaged in intercourse goes thusly." He held up the small object so that it was obvious to everyone that is was a ring box. "If Penny was indeed able to spread her gossip bubble much farther than our original meme theory experiment had shown, than Mother would be hounding me about this. She knows that I am in possession of my great grandmother's wedding ring, and that I intend to give it to you."

"How...how long have you had it?" Amy whispered. Her eyes had become wide and her breathing took on a fast, erratic pace.

He wriggled again and glanced at her before looking back at the ceiling fan. "Not important, but _what is,_ is that now that you know about this Schrodinger's box has been forcibly pried open, the only thing to do now is to examine the contents."

Sheldon staggered when Amy pulled him down by the collar of his pajamas and kissed him. At first he flailed in an effort to keep his balance, but once he was sure that they weren't going to end up in a heap on the floor he clutched her tightly to his body. Three times, one kiss ended and another began in rapid succession after their first initial contact, then Sheldon pulled away with a wonder-filled look in his eyes.

"Should I take this to mean that the cat is alive?"

Amy nodded vigorously then darted to the front door and snatched her purse off the hook it was resting on. She jogged over to the hallway leading to the bedrooms and stood in the entrance.

"Aren't you coming Sheldon?" she asked breathlessly.

"Oh...Uh...Of course," he replied, as if being startled out of day dream.

"What the freak just happened?" Missy asked once they were gone.

John shrugged and Meemaw busted out in giddy laughter.

"If that means what I think it does, then The Lord has answered my prayers," Mary said in an awestruck voice.


	3. Chapter 3

Sheldon was still a bit dazed by what had just happened. When he first made the decision to propose marriage he didn't anticipate being engulfed in such a floaty feeling. In the back of his mind he had always known that Amy would agree, but that didn't stop him from imaging all the different ways that the moment could go wrong. Especially considering the way their evening had turned out the last time that he had planned to ask her. Now that the weight had been lifted he had no idea what to do with himself. Amy though seemed to be quite sure of what had to happen. He recognized the signs now, thanks to the experience of regular encounters, as specified by the most resent amendment to The Relationship Agreement.

Amy's body language, normally very controlled, like his own, and yet having a certain feminine fluidity that Sheldon lacked, had gained a slinkyness as he followed her down the hall. He also noted how the hand that wasn't holding her purse was clutching at the fabric of her nightgown, close to where her hip turned into her outer thigh. Once they had entered the bedroom and the door was firmly shut, Amy pressed her body against Sheldon's side and made a noise in her throat that reminded him of a cat's purr.

"Proposal," she said as she removed a box of condoms from her purse before tossing it to land on the discarded bedding in the corner. "We have coitus, tonight, on that bed." Her eyes glanced towards the bed in question and she bit her bottom lip in a seductive smile.

"My family is still awake, aren't you afraid that they'll know what we're doing?" Sheldon asked.

He sucked in a breath through his teeth as her hand ghosted across his waist and reached for the door knob. A click, caused by the locking mechanism activating, sounded and Amy's smile widened.

"I promise to be quiet if that helps you make your decision."

"That promise does make me feel better, but I'm unsure of your ability to keep it."

"I can be quiet if I want to."

Amy tugged one of Sheldon's hands out from behind his back and gave it a squeezed before trading the condom box for the one that held the ring. She then stepped away, taking the ring out as she moved farther into the room so that she could put it on. She peeked over her shoulder as she placed the empty ring box on the dresser and grinned at how intently Sheldon was watching her. Hips swaying in an effort to entice him even more, Amy walked to the edge of the bed and lifted one knee onto it.

"I await your choice Dr. Cooper," she said and pulled the hem of her nightgown so that her pink cotton panties peeked into his view. For a few moments Sheldon stood in front of the door, staring at Amy's backside and fiddling with the closure on one end of the condom box.

"You're a vixen Amy Farrah Fowler," he said as he opened the box and ripped off a packet from the string that tumbled out of it. "Proposal accepted."

Amy covered her mouth in an effort to muffle herself as Sheldon wrapped an arm around her waist and pressed his pelvis against her rear.

"That doesn't bode well for your promise to be quiet," he said as he nuzzled his nose into the crook of her neck.

"Quietness, was promised, not silence," came Amy's breathy reply. She twisted around in his arms and cradled his head in her hands as she kissed him.

"Touche," he said, not even bothering to break away from her kiss to do so.

Unable to keep her amusement over Sheldon's reply in check, Amy giggled as she broke the kiss and pulled on his shoulders to that they tumbled, gracelessly, onto the bed. They wallered around for several moments, tangled in each others limbs. Soon, they became entrapped by swaths of fabric from both her nightgown and the bed, which had been left unmade during their trip to the living room. This caused Amy to giggle some more, because the longer and harder Sheldon worked to detangle the situation, the worse it got.

"Hold still," he grunted in frustration as he tugged uselessly at what he thought was the top sheet, but turned out to be Amy's skirt, which had gotten wrapped around his ankle twice.

Amy endeavored to obey Sheldon's request, tittering as his hands swept over nearly every part of her body in an effort to disencumber their limbs.

"I think we've stumbled upon a quite effective form of foreplay," she laughed once he'd finished and thrown the blanket and top sheet to the floor.

"You call it foreplay, but I call it a massive pain in the _you know what._ " With a huff he pulled his pajama shirt off over his head, then flopped onto his back and wiggled out of his pants and underwear. Sheldon frowned when he looked at Amy and saw that she was just lying there, biting her knuckles in an effort to keep from laughing too hard. "Well what are you waiting for little lady?"

"Nothing," she replied as giggles took her over. It took some effort, but after a taking a minute to calm down she schooled a serious look onto her face and sat up. By the time Amy's face appeared again, from under her nightgown as it came off over her head, she was grinning like a maniac.

"What has gotten into you Amy?"

"You will be soon enough," she was biting her knuckles again, her whole body trembling with mirth and sexual anticipation.

"I fail to see what's so amusing."

"I'm sorry Sheldon, I'm just so happy right now, it's hard to contain."

"Well that's alright I guess, but do try to be quieter. Your last bust of merriment had surely breached the decibel level detectable from outside this room."

Sheldon watched her remove her panties in confusion. Up till then their bedroom activities had always had a serious air about them. Usually when Amy would refer to their encounters she used words such as _'lovely'_ and _'sweet'_ and _'sensual.'_ Those were not adverbs that he would use to describe what was happening between them in that moment, but as she draped herself over him, now as nude as he was, something in his brain told him to let it go. Besides, she had just told him that she was happy, and that's all that really mattered.

As Sheldon was welcoming Amy's contact she picked up the condom packet, which laid forgotten where he had dropped it near the pillows earlier, and tore it open. She stroked him, in preparation to put on the prophylactic, and grinned at the sigh he let out.

"Is it my turn to be on top?"

Sheldon bit his lip and tried to focus on Amy's question and not what her hands were doing. "No, but seeing as you have the situation handled I'm willing to give you this one."

"You'll give me this one," she snickered as she shifted her legs around him and began to accept him into her body. "Don't you mean you'll let me give _you_ this one?"

Sheldon groaned quietly and kissed Amy's temple, his hands reaching to grope gently at her hips and buttocks. He had a vague notion that he should know what she was talking about, but the rhythm that she had fallen into was setting his body aflame, and he could think of nothing else.


	4. Chapter 4

"For fuck's sake," John sighed when the omelet he just tried to flip split in half. He growled and stabbed at it with his spatula, resigning to at least make it look like he meant to make his eggs scrambled in first place. It was four in the morning and he was the first person up. At least he thought he was. When he turned around, to find a plate to dump his food onto, he bumped right into Sheldon.

"Jesus! Make a little noise next time." John picked up the spatula from where he dropped it and threw it in the sink. "What the hell are you doing up?"

"My sleep schedule is still on California time. That and it's impossible to sleep with the racket you're making." Sheldon quirked an eyebrow at the frying pan full of eggs. "Meemaw and Mother are sure to make breakfast in a few hours."

"I won't be here by the time they get up. I'm meeting George at the docks and we're gonna teach Nathan how to fish. You wanna come with us?"

Sheldon watched John fill a plate with his scrambled omelet and lean against the counter to eat it. The last time that Sheldon had gone fishing, his father spent the whole morning drinking and filling empty beer cans with water so that they'd sink to the bottom of the lake, and George Jr. had tried to force feed him a bait worm. The memory of feeling the little creature undulating against his lips as George held him down to the worn wood of the dock made Sheldon shutter.

"Blech!"

John laughed and shoveled the last morsel of food into his mouth. "Not a big fan of gutting fish?" he asked as he went about washing his plate.

"Of course not. I'm not to partial to the taste of night-crawler either."

John laughed again. "Well what are you gonna do all day?"

"I'm most likely to spend my time with Amy and Meemaw."

"Seriously, you're gonna go make arts and crafts with a bunch of old biddies and miss the opportunity to have some man time?" John threw his head back and let out a howling sort of growl in his best imitation of Tim the Toolman Taylor.

Sheldon, startled by John's sudden vocalization, began to ease towards the hallway. "Yes I certainly am."

"Oh wait, I wanna ask you something," John said just as Sheldon started to disappear past the doorway. "What was all that last night about Amy, and intercourse, and a cat being alive?"

This startled Sheldon in a different way. "Do you really not know?" he asked as he stepped back into the kitchen.

"No."

"Well if it wasn't obvious, Amy and I are now betrothed. If that is all I'm going back to bed."

John watched Sheldon leave with a confused look on his face. "All right, but I still don't know what that has to do with a damn cat," he muttered under his breath.

XXX

Amy awoke to the smell of bacon and coffee, and Sheldon lying beside her, facing away towards the door. Sun light, filtering through the blinds, threw lines of light across the room and birds could be heard, twittering in the tree outside the window. She sighed contentedly and stretched. As her left hand withdrew from the bed clothes, a ray of sun caught on a shiny object. At first Amy was a little confused by it, but as she recalled the night before her lips stretched into a smile.

Casting a glace at the back of Sheldon's head, Amy brought her hand closer so she could finely look at the ring. While she did see it last night, their activities didn't really give her a good chance inspect it. It was rose gold with a singled white diamond. The fact that it was antique was quite obvious in it's appearance, with places on the band dulled with ware and it's simpleness. That didn't keep her from loving it though.

She twisted the ring around her finger several time in order to admire it from all angles. On the third go around Amy paused, glimpsing a brown speck hidden near one of the prongs that held the diamond in its setting. The shade of the speck reminded her of the color of dried blood, but before she could dwell on it too much Sheldon stirred beside her.

"You're finely up," he said

Amy smiled bigger than she had been already and kissed his cheek as he turned over to face her. "How long have you been awake?"

"Three hours, twenty-seven minutes and forty-five seconds."

"You've been lying there that long?"

"Not exactly. I got up to urinate and tell John that he was being too loud in the kitchen. Since then I've been working on a few new equations in my mind palace."

Amy frowned. "This is your vacation, that means that you don't have to work."

"But I wanted to, and I had the time to do so."

Stretching again, Amy slipped out of bed and wandered over to the dresser. "Well next time wake me up," she said as she picked out her clothes for the day. "I'm sure that I could think up a way to entertain you."

"There is absolutely no doubt about that," Sheldon replied as he watched her change.

After taking a moment to clear his mind of thoughts that had been invading his imagination at a disturbing rate ever since Amy's birthday, Sheldon got up so he could get dressed as well. In short order he was fully clothed and waiting by the door for her to finish combing her hair in the mirror hanging above the dresser. Sheldon couldn't help but smile at the thought of watching her get ready for the rest of his life.

XXX

Mary was humming to herself and cracking eggs into a frying pan filled with grease, left over from the bacon she had just cooked. A few feet away, Meemaw sat at the breakfast table, tapping the eraser of a pencil to her lips as she contemplated the crossword puzzle in that mornings newspaper.

"Alice's cat," she muttered to herself. "Not enough letters for Cheshire."

"Dinah."

"What was that dear?"

Missy lifted her head up from where she had been resting it on her arms on the opposite side of the table and blinked at Meemaw blearily. "Her cat's name is Dinah. When her sister finishes reading to her she plays with a brown and white kitten that she calls Dinah, then she falls asleep and goes to Wonderland."

"Yes, thank you pumpkin," Meemaw replied as she moved to pencil in the answer.

Mary started to hum the tune to Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah and Meemaw tries to not feel embarrassed that she didn't know the answer. She hadn't seen the movie in nearly twenty five years, how was she supposed to remember the most forgettable part of it? Her daughter's humming is cut short just as she finishes filling in the last box.

"Mornin' kids. Shelly, do you and Amy want y'all's yolks runny of hard?"

Sheldon grimaced as he sat down next to his sister. "Why in the world would I want mine runny?" He nudged a mug of coffee further towards Missy's portion of the table so that it would stop interfering with his own place setting. "Give me hard, I'd rather not catch salmonella."

"I'll take mine runny if you don't mind." Amy smiled at the look of disgust that Sheldon shot at her.

When Mary brought over everyone's plates she couldn't help but notice the ring on Amy's finger. She mouthed _'thank you Jesus'_ up at the ceiling and poked at Missy's shoulder so that she'd lift her head up and make room for her food.

"So, I take it that we're gonna be planning a wedding," Mary said as she sat down.

Sheldon paused mid bite and looked around the table. Missy was rubbing sleep out of her eyes, Amy and Meemaw were grinning like loons, and Mary was looking at him expectantly. He gulped.

"Yes, I suppose that Amy and I will be making preparations in the near future."

Mary smiled at her confirmed suspicions. "Where do y'all think you're gonna get married at? I know about this lovely little church near the house that would be just precious."

Amy frowned at the shocked look on Sheldon's face. His mother was going to overwhelm him, she just knew it. "I think it's a little soon to be thinking about that," she replied for him. "We only got engaged last night and I have yet to tell my family. Speaking of them, I also think that we first need to assess whether it would be more cost effective to have my side fly down here or to have you guys fly up there. Not to mention all our friends and colleagues."

Sheldon nodded at his plate, grateful that Amy had saved him from the tongue lashing that he would have gotten had he outright refused a country church service like he had wanted to. Mary looked a little disappointed, but didn't argue against Amy, having found no real way to dismiss her logic.

"Well, how about a picture of you two to commemorate the engagement?" Meemaw exclaimed, happy to break the tension. She leaned over to gab the rest of the discarded newspaper off the kitchen counter and flipped to a page near the center. The page she found had a full color picture of a field of bluebonnets, the article header reading ' _Bonnet Season Still In Full Swing'_.

Mary took the article in one hand and let the other cover her heart, a sappy smile bloomed on her face. "Now _that_ is what I call precious."

Sheldon gulped.


End file.
